Forestville Eagles v North Adelaide Rockets Sun, Mar 21, 3:00pm at Wayville
Forestville’s first home game of the season will be a battle of the fleet footed, with both the Eagles and Rockets suiting a stack of guards this year. 18 year old Adam Doyle has transitioned to the starting 1 spot in the absence of Matt Sutton and Brenton Campbell, and will initiate Forestville’s running game, with the likes of Brad Sullivan and Scott Arnold finishing the break. Michael Zorich rivals Cameron Wilson as one of the league’s most consistent all rounders, and North are no strangers to fast break basketball.

Eastern Mavericks v Southern Tigers Sun, Mar 21, 3:00pm at Adelaide Hills
New Maverick coach Steve Breheny gets his second home game of the season, this time hosting a rebuilding Southern team. Returning Tiger Paul Smith was a vocal part of last week’s game and Joel Goodenough, Shane Boal and Tristan Braithwaite form a tough and experienced backcourt that would treat this game as an opportunity for an early win. Eastern were outrebounded by 20 against West and will also need to win games such as this one to be in the hunt when Ben Madgen returns mid season.

Sturt Sabres v Norwood Flames Sun, Mar 21, 3:00pm at Pasadena
The game of the round pits last year’s premiers against each other. Both are far from full strength (Sturt yet to add Marcus Ng and Jacob Holmes, and Norwood missing David Cooper, Keith Krause and Dan Thompson), but none of this will take away from what should be a high paced affair. Norwood’s offence must be almost all transition and import Jimmy Fanning will need to keep up to see the ball. Most of Sturt’s young group have had junior experience at levels higher than ABA, and Tom Daly, Jan Warbout and Corey Maynard also played roles in last year’s grand final team. Their progress since then will play a big factor in their ability to keep Todd Matthews and Andrew Webber in check.

Central Districts Lions v West Adelaide Bearcats Sun, Mar 21, 3:30pm at Starplex
The vocal Lion supporters will be in full force with the Sunday game likely to bring out its junior fan base. Wade Pidock and Dan Carlin will be required to bring their A-game against one of the biggest front courts in the league, and much will also be required of whichever Centrals guard gets the job on Brad Davidson. After missing 2008 with injury, Chris Molitor had a breakout year in 2009 and after an NBL season on the 36ers bench, will be bursting to play big minutes again.

South Adelaide Panthers v Woodville Warriors Sun, Mar 21, 3:45pm at Marion
There’ll be standing room only at Marion, with the Panther Army likely to be out in force for a Sunday game. South went from a near GF miss in 2008 to rock bottom in 2009 but look a more stable group with the addition of Victorians Sammy Gazzo and Tim Pickert. 17 year old Lachie Prest could be a star in this league, his 9 points in game 1 coming in 17 minutes. Woodville, a team known for the toughness, look even stronger than usual under league veteran Mark Molitor and are showing the benefits of a solid post-Chrismtas fitness campaign. Cameron Wilson, Josh Knight and Brady Brink are expected to play well, but it might be the input of shooting guard Ben McKay and Forward Brad Goodchild that have more of an impact on their chances in this game.